The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun

Out today!
A concise notice from Grantian Florilegium:

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun a previously unknown work by J.R.R. Tolkien was released today. Written more than seventy years ago, the story retells the epic legends of the Norse hero, Sigurd, the dragon-slayer, the revenge of his wife, Gudrun, and the Fall of the Nibelungs.

Introducing the work is one of Tolkien's renowned lectures on Norse literature. Amazingly, no part of the story or the lecture has ever been reproduced or quoted from since they were first written.

Of course, the Norse legends and sagas were the single greatest influence on Tolkien's writings, and many of the events in Sigurd and Gudrun can be traced through to The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarrillion, and The Children of Hurin. No serious reader of Tolkien will want to miss this remarkable new resource.

"AI as in TRAIN"

I loved Phonics.
Mama laminated the printouts on different colored construction paper.
It was truly awesome.

Assuming the usual context, which is correct, if either is?

"It's only a game."

or

"It's a game, only."

Children and Fairy Tales

It is accused of giving children a false impression of the world they live in. But I think no literature that children could read gives them less of a false impression. I think what profess to be realistic stories for children are far more likely to deceive them. I never expected the real world to be like the fairy tales. I think that I did expect school to be like the school stories. The fantasies did not deceive me: the school stories did. All stories in which children have adventures and successes which are possible, in the sense that they do not break the laws of nature, but almost infinitely improbable, are in more danger than the fairy tales of raising false expectations.
—C.S. Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing for Children

read the rest of the excerpt here...

Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity

Composed by Gustav Holst between 1914 and 1916.
This is awesome.
And Eiji Oue is...entertaining to watch.

The spirit of this music is very much in keeping with the astrological significance of Jupiter as the planet of benevolence and generosity. This Jupiter has no thunderbolts to hurtle down on us, but only knowing smiles and a wink or two. He has come down from Olympus to flirt with beauties in the mortal realm and, if flirtation leads to something more, so much the better. We hear him chasing but not catching the ladies. The music emerges from its cavorting, twirling and gambolling out onto a central plateau of graceful dance music, then sinks back into the carefree patterns of before.

- Bryan Trussler

beautiful album art.

Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.

Nickel Creek guitarist Sean Watkins wrote this in his online journal back in '05.

I’m so sick of sugar-coated songs from the Christian perspective. One of the most comforting and inspiring lines to me is from the last chorus of ‘Come Thou Fount’ where it says, ‘Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.’ Not many un-watered-down songs make it through the filter of the Christian music industry mafia these days.

	Sufjan Stevens - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
	Found at skreemr.com

Springtime

We were cute.
Thanks to Mama for dressing us pretty.
Oh, I loved those puffed sleeves.

Hello my family. I would like to inform you that from hence onward, my name on this our blog is Gwendolyn. However, lest you become sad at losing the familier multifarious, I assure you that that is still my name: Multifarious Gwendolyn - the first name is used somewhat like an adjective. But now I prefer Gwendolyn. Thank you.

Today I am cold. My fingers are cold, my toes are cold, my nose is cold, and even my hair is cold. I miss you all.

I hereby wish The Littlest One in the Whole Family a very happy 10th birthday. May you live long and prosper.

i thank you God for most this amazing day

http://www.last.fm/music/Eric+Whitacre/+videos/+1-5U7i99AfBik

I never thought I'd say that...

I was just griping to someone about schoolwork and he said "Well, I'm sure every kid feels this way about school. Except nerds. Somehow, they never seem to be overwhelmed." To which I replied, "Lucky nerds."

Do dolls freak you out? They freak me out. When I was little, there were only two dolls that I could tolerate. One was a smallish, very thin and spinsterly looking Raggedy Ann. She had a little, white bunny rabbit doll to go with her and I loved her. The other one that I liked was named Emily and she had huge blonde hair, blue eyes, and the prettiest pink dress I had ever seen. However, all of our other dolls totally scared me. The ratted hair, the rolling eyes (or lack thereof), and the scary hands haunted my dreams...well, maybe not. But they scared me. I remember one time when I was about 6, Molly had put all of their dolls under my trundle bed. That night, of course, I really, really, really needed to go use the bathroom, but the thought of putting my feet down on the floor where the dolls could reach them totally scared the peewaddin out of me. I found a way past this major problem, however. I stood on my bed, leapt off, hit the ground running and sped towards the bathroom, proving that fear can help a 6 year old make Jesse Ownes look like Freddie the Sloth.



Of course, if I had thought about it hard enough, I would have realized that the wolf that lived under my bed had probably eaten the dolls all up.

and I quote...

~monolog

Here are a few great quotes and things that I've randomly come across lately.

If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten.
Tony Robbins.

An adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered.
C. S. Lewis.

A girl of sixteen deserves no credit for her looks. Beauty at sixty is her souls doing.
Anonymous.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.
Tim Keller.

idiot n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.

The Devil's Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce.

beauty n. An aesthetic radiance that delights the soul; a quality much admired in women, landscapes and tropical fish, but curiously out of favor in art throughout the modern era.

cat n. A soft, indestructible automaton provided by nature to be kicked when things go wrong in the domestic circle.

egotist, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.
The Cynic's Dictionary, by Rick Bayan.

Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.
Euripides (c. 480–406 BC).

In Ages of Faith, the final aim of life is placed beyond life.
Alexis de Tocqueville.

But what if man had eyes to see the true beauty--the divine beauty, I mean, pure and dear and unalloyed, not clogged with the pollutions of mortality and all the colours and vanities of human life--thither looking, and holding converse with the true beauty simple and divine?
Plato's Symposium.

A mighty fortress is our God, 
a bulwark never failing;  
Our helper He amid the flood 
of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe 
doth seek to work us woe; 
his craft and power are great,  
and armed with cruel hate,  
on earth is not his equal. 

Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing,
were not the right man on our side,
the man of God's own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabbath is his name,
from age to age the same,
and He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo, his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them, abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours,
thru Him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill;
God's truth abideth still;
His kingdom is forever.

~Martin Luther

enlightening conversation for all you hot dog lovers out there...

and hot dog haters, i guess.